ALAN BROGAN’S CHAMPIONSHIP prospects faded again this morning with confirmation that he will miss Dublin’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Cork.
Brogan has not seen any inter-county action since the defeat to Mayo last September but his groin injury appeared to be on the mend when he lined out in a club game last month.
Dublin hoped that he would be fit enough to come off the bench on Saturday evening but the 2011 Footballer of the Year has now tweaked his hamstring and will miss out.
Manager Jim Gavin refused to rule the star attacker out for the rest of the season and said that they will assess Brogan’s fitness one game at a time.
“We’re just looking at the game on Saturday evening,” Gavin said. “Certainly he’s not going to feature on Saturday.”
Dual minor star Cormac Costello is the only other absentee after he broke his collarbone in training.
“Thankfully Cormac is comfortable now and the medical team did an outstanding job,” Gavin said. “It’s very unfortunate for Cormac who just fell in the game and broke a collarbone.
“He’s trained very hard this season, he’s been coming on immensely, he’s shown great attitude and application. He’s a very well rounded individual, very mature for his young age, and I’m sure he’ll come back a stronger man.”
Gavin will name his team following training later this evening. Cork are set to field an unchanged starting 15 on Saturday with manager Conor Counihan naming the same side which won the Round 4 qualifier against Galway.
Alan Brogan is an outstanding player but it’s hardly “a blow” considering they’ve been doing great without him for the best part of a year now.
true, Alan Brogan has not been part of the gameplan for 2013, it’s a personal blow to Alan himself but the forwards are not the issue for Dublin this year, midfield and freekicks are the problems that come to mind unless Brogan was going to solve our issues in Midfield?
Great to see Dublin’s chances “fading” with injured players staying injured.
Big blow Alan Brogan won’t be sitting on the bench this Saturday night
As for Costello, he’s only a toddler and will be back in 2014 and is a realistic starter and keyplayer for dublin for the coming 10 years or so.
Shows you how Dublin have improved over the last season. Id agree with the above comments stating its not a “big blow” . Ye now have enough quality in the forwards that Alan Brogan (even though he is a great player) will not be missed to much.